WebMD Health and Markle Foundation Launch "Life on the Line" Unique Initiative Empowers Women To Take Control of Their Own Health Care

Publication Date:

August 7, 2003

NEW YORK, NY—WebMD Health and the Markle Foundation, in collaboration with FACCT - Foundation for Accountability and Oxygen Media, today announced the launch of "Life on the Line" a resource center that encourages women to improve their health and the quality of the care they receive.

The "Life on the Line" center brings together some of the best health resources on the Internet and streamlines the often-overwhelming process of researching reliable health and health care information. "Life on the Line" consists of WebMD Health's content and peer support groups, personally-tailored, interactive tools designed by FACCT, and links to government and non-profit health related sites. Women can use "Life on the Line" to:

assess how empowered they are as patients;

compare the care they are currently receiving to broader norms;

generate personalized tips to improve their care and their relationships with their doctors;

find doctors and hospitals appropriate to their individual needs;

learn critical aspects of self-care to stay as healthy as possible; and

get and give support through WebMD's peer support systems.

"Life on the Line" focuses on women's health issues and provides women with the information and resources needed to improve their health care. The center will allow women to foster an enhanced doctor-patient relationship in which they collaborate with their doctors to stay healthy, diagnose disease, and choose among treatment options. The "Life on the Line" concept was developed by the Markle Foundation in collaboration with WebMD Health, FACCT, Oxygen Media and a team of health and media experts.

"Life on the Line" was inspired by compelling stories such as that of Chris McHugh, a 34 year old mother of two, and her courageous battle against inflammatory breast cancer. Diagnosed with cancer and given only 18 months to live, Chris resolved to learn everything she could about her disease and her treatment options. Chris McHugh passed away earlier this year, but six years, not 18 months, after her diagnosis. By becoming her own health advocate, Chris bought precious years with her family and friends that doctors predicted she would never have. In addition, she became an advocate for all women with serious illnesses, urging them to be their own health care champions.

"Markle's health program seeks to accelerate the use of information and communication technologies by patients to improve their health and health care," said Zoë Baird, president of the Markle Foundation. "We believe that patients, with the right tools, can significantly influence the quality of their care."

"The "Life on the Line" center offers women information about health care and a set of online tools that can give them greater ability to improve their own health as well as the health of their families, said Dr. Carol Diamond, managing director of the Markle Foundation's Healthcare program.

"Our collaboration with the Markle Foundation gets right at the heart of our mission to make health information more accessible, easy to understand and, most importantly, actionable," said Nan Forte, EVP, Consumer Services, WebMD Health. "What's exciting about the "Life on the Line" center is that its focus goes beyond quality content in general and offers content that is specifically suited for different personality types and stages within the healthcare continuum."

The Oxygen Network is producing and airing a "Life on the Line" pilot based upon the real world triumphs of women who have taken control of their own health care. The episode is scheduled to air in the fall.

Markle Foundation works to improve health and national security through the use of information and technology. Markle collaborates with innovators and thought leaders from the public and private sectors whose expertise lies in the areas of information technology, privacy, civil liberties, health, and national security. Learn more about Markle at www.markle.org.

WebMD Health is the leading provider of online information, educational services and communities for physicians and consumers. WebMD Medical Manager is the leading provider of physician practice management software and related services. WebMD Envoy is the leader in payer and health care provider transaction processing and reimbursement cycle management services.

FACCT - Foundation for Accountability is a national organization improving health care for Americans by advocating for an accountable and accessible system where consumers are partners in their care and help shape the delivery of care. To achieve this goal, FACCT creates tools to help people make quality-based decisions, develops consumer-based quality measures, supports public education about health care quality, fosters efforts to collect quality data and informs public policy. For more on FACCT, contact Aryne Blumklotz at 503-546-9717 or [email protected]

Oxygen Media, a 24-hour cable television network, puts a fresh spin on television for women. With original series by Oprah Winfrey, Isaac Mizrahi, and Carrie Fisher, Oxygen airs more original programming than any other women's network. Founded in 1998, the network is independently owned and now available in 47 million cable households.